If your garage door cable starts malfunctioning, this could affect the way your garage door works. If the cable stops working completely, you’ll have to open and close the garage door manually. It’s usually best to have a professional take a look at the problem as soon as possible, since a falling garage door could be extremely dangerous. However, if you have some experience with repairing your garage, there are a few things you can try to get the cable back on track and keep your family safe. Just make sure you’re comfortable with repairing the cable before you get started.
The garage door cable is an integral part of the door system and is a safety mechanism. The cable lifts the door by passing through the torsion springs to cause the door to come up and down. The garage door cable is also a backup device that works when the springs aren’t functioning to protect against spring recoil, which can be a safety hazard. If a spring is cabled properly, it will simply fall to the ground if its snaps, which will keep you and your loved ones from being injured and prevent damage to your property. This is why it’s crucial that the garage door cable is correctly aligned within the door.
There are a few reasons why a garage door cable can break. For your garage door to work correctly, there should be a specific amount of tension between the springs and cables. If the balance is off for any reason, the cable with unwind. This can occur if the torsion spring breaks, the drum is too small or large for the spring or the garage door it an object on its way down. If the cable breaks or comes off track, you an realign or replace the cable quickly as long as you’re skilled and careful.
If you have an automatic garage door opener, turn off the electricity from the opener so you can avoid electrical accidents during the repair. Open the garage door completely and place clamps on the tracks to keep the door open while you fix the cable.
Before you remove the broken garage door cable, it’s important that all the tension is released from the torsion springs. The springs sustain stress each time the garage door opens and closes and have lots of tension, so you’ll need to get rid of the spring tension before removing the cable to keep the springs from recoiling. If the springs recoil while they are under tremendous tension, this can cause injury. If you use a vise-grip clamp for the shaft and turn the shaft just enough to release the cable, you should be able to start the repair. Don’t loosen the shaft too much, since this will unwind the cable on the opposite side of the door and make the repair more complicated. Take the cable from the pin located at the base of the door and unwind it to remove it from the drum.
If you find that the process is too tedious or you want to ensure it is done correctly, contact a garage door technician who can execute the repair and get your garage door working again quickly.
